Sign flashing device



June 22, 1937. J MUDON 2,084,407

S IGN FLASHING DEVICE Filed Feb. 8, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l eyf June 22, 1937. 'r. .J. MUDON SIGN FLASHING DEVICE Filed Feb; 8, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W M m a W E H y w JE f 54 w uq Patented June 22, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SIGN FLASHING DEVICE Illinois Application February 8, 1934, Serial No. 710,244

1 Claim.

My invention relates to flashing devices for signs and the like and more particularly to a flashing device for gaseous conduction tubes such as the common neon tube now used in advertising displays.

It is the principal purpose of my invention to provide a device of this character wherein two sets of tubing may be operated from a single transformer so as to flash both sets without any danger of accidently opening the secondary circuit of the transformer if one of the tubes of either set should fail.

It is also an important purpose of this invention to provide a device of this character which in opening the circuit through either set of tubing completely disconnects the tubing from the secondary of the transformer at both ends thereby avoiding any danger of corona discharge or other stray electrical disturbance. The circuits through the tubes is closed in exactly the same fashion, that is, both terminals are connected to the source at once.

It is also a purpose of my invention to provide a flashing device capable of connecting first one set of tubes and then another set across a source of current where two sets of tubes are being lighted from the same source in such fashion that the change-over is made quickly within a short period in which both sets of tubes are con- 30 nected across the source of current.

My invention further contemplates the provision of a device of this character wherein a single driving device may be utilized to operate any number of flashing groups arranged in pairs up 35 to the capacity of the operating unit.

It is a further purpose of my invention to provide in a flashing device of this character a novel actuating mechanism for shifting the contacts so as to connect the different sets of tubes 40 alternately to the source of current supply. To

this end my invention contemplates the provision of stationary contact pairs together with movable contact pairs carried by a rocking element and a novel mechanism for rocking said element so as to cause the contacts to separate with a snap action and to close both pairs of contacts before opening the previous closed one and closing the previous opened one.

I will describe the preferred form of my invention by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein- Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the device;

Fig. 2 is a plan section on line 2-2 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a portion of the device showing a different position than that shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 4 is a detailed section on line i'-i of Fig. 3 showing the movable contact mechanism.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the numeral 5 will be used to refer to one set of tubing and the numeral 6 refers to another set of tubing of the gaseous conduction type. I have shown the wiring for connecting the sets of tubes to the flashing device in connection with Fig. 2 where the set 5 is connected by wires l and 8 to terminals 25 and it respectively these terminals being mounted in the top of the procelain housing H.

The set of tubes numbered ii is connected by the wires I2 and i3 to the terminals It and I5 respectively and the source of current supply is connected by means of the wires it and ii to the terminals i8 and i9 respectively.

Terminals 9, i0, M and it have stationary contact heads such as iii and 2| (see Fig. 3) which are adapted to be engaged by the movable contact elements such as 22, 23, 2t and 25. Contacts 22 and 23 are supported by the movable contact member referred to generally by the numeral 2% and contacts 2 1 and 25 are supported by a similar member 27 and these two members are connected by means of an insulating member 23 which is supported at its opposite ends in suitable bearing blocks such as indicated at 29 in Fig. 3 as forming an extension downward of the terminal member l8.

A suitable arm 36 is secured substantially at the center of the member 28 and depends therefrom through a slot 3| in the insulating member 32 which forms a barrier separating the interior of the porcelain casing H from the operating mechanism for rocking the member 28. The arm 30 is also of insulating material preferably bakelite and the barrier 32 is preferably constructed of porcelain.

The lower end of the arm 3b is connected by means of a pin 33 to a yoke M which is actuated by pin 35 on wheel SE to rock the arm at to and fro in a manner which will be more thoroughly described hereinafter. The yoke member 34 it will be noted has its lower end provided with a pin 3? which passes through an opening in the supporting member 38 and a suitable spring 39 urges the yoke member upward.

The gear wheel 36 is driven from a suitable pinion 40 (see Fig. 1) which pinion is driven by means of the induction disk 4! of the induction disk motor housed in the lower portion 42 of the casing.

' (see Fig. 1).

It is obvious of course that the shaft 43 upon which the pinion is mounted may be extended to provide driving mechanism for several more wheels such as wheel 36 when it is desired to operate several of the flashing units from the single motive power source. The general structure of the device having been described, I will now describe in detail the several features which are important in the functioning of this mechanism.

First, I will refer to Fig. 2 where I show the conductors such as 44 and mounted on the terminals 9 and H) and a similar pair of conductors 46 and 4'! mounted on terminals [4 and H5. The adjacent ends of these conductors are turned down (see Fig. 4) and they form an air path in parallelwith the gaseous conduction path such as 5 or 6 so that in the event of failure of one of the tubes in a set such as 5 or 6, the high voltage necessary to operate the tubes will, as it rises due to open circuiting of the secondary of the transformer, break down the air between the adjacent ends of the conductors. The spacing of conductors M and 45 is made such that only a slight rise in voltage is necessary to establish the current flow across them thus protecting the tranformer in the event of the breaking of the tubes and enabling me to provide continuous operation. I

The contacts 22 and 23 mounted on the member 26 have the spring arms such as 48 and i9 and a bowed spring 55} has its opposite ends pressing the arms 48 and 49 upwardly. The intermediate portion of the spring 59 is bent over the pin 51 Stops 52 and 53 limit the upward movements of the arms 68 and 49.

In order to insure good contact between the terminals such as 58 and i9 and the movable contact members such as 22 and 23, I preferably provide the construction such as shown most clearly by Figs, 1 and 4. The terminal !8 has the bearing block 2% rigidly connected therewith so that it forms a good conducting path down to the shaft 5A which is mounted on the end of the insulating rod 28 but this shaft must necessarily turn in its bearing and therefore may become loose which would adversely affect the conduction of current to the member 26 which is the contact carrying member and which of course is directly connected to the spring arms 33 and ("#9. In order to further insure good conduction from the member l8 to the member 26, I provide a spring member 55 which is fixed at its upper end to the terminal l8 and which bears against the stub shaft 54 at its lower end as indicated at 56. In this fashion I obtain assurance of good contact.

Referring now to the yoke 34 and its operation, this yoke, it will be noted, has a straight depending arm portion 51 (see Figs. 1 and 3) and then has the body portion such as 58 opposite the straight portion 51 and has a lower portion 59 opposite which there is an opening to provide clearance as will now be explained.

Assuming that the pin 35 is being carried by disk 36 in the direction of the arrow at the instant shown in Fig. 3, this pin is forcing the yoke to the right and thus moving member 30 to the right also. As the center line is passed, spring 39 snaps the yoke over to the right to the full limit permitted by the spring arm 49. This, of course, causes the yoke to move ahead of the pin 35 and the bow at 58 is provided to take care of this action and avoid having pin 35 strike the yoke.

On the reverse action, the pin 35 will move down into the dotted position shown in Fig. 1

to engage the portion 59 of the yoke and as it moves this portion 59 to the left, it will eventually cause the yoke to snap into left hand position thus moving contact 48 up against its stationary contact and the opening below the end of the straight portion 5'! provides clearance for the pin during this action.

The flashing device of itself essentially is made up of two consumption circuits each one of which comprises a set of gaseous conduction tubes and a supply circuit consisting of a transformer and a suitable source of current. The present device provides a switching adapted to continuously switch the current supply from one to the other of the consumption circuits and 6 so as to flash them on and off Without breaking the supply circuit. This'is an important feature in the pres-- ent device because of the high open circuit voltage characteristics of transformers used for supplying current to gaseous conduction devices.

The operation of this device to flash two sets of tubing then is as follows. Assuming that the mechanism is in the position shown in Fig. 1, that is, with the current connected to terminals i 4 and [5 through terminals l8 and i9 and contacts 23 and 25. Then pin 35 is moved clockwise to move the yoke 34 to the left thus bringing contacts 22 and 24 up into engagement with the contacts on the ends of terminals Q and it respectively. This momentarily connects both sets of tubing to the current supply. As pin 35 continues however, the yoke is snapped over by spring 39 to break the circuit to set 6 at both ends at once. Thus there is no opportunity for stray discharges of current.

From the above description it is believed that the construction and operation of this device will be clear to those skilled in this art and the advantages readily apparent.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a flashing system having a pair of consumption circuits adapted to be alternately supplied with current and a supply circuit adapted to supply current to said consumption circuits, switching means for continuously shifting the current supply from one to the other of said consumption circuits without breaking the supply circuit, said means comprising a pair of spaced contacts adapted for connection to the terminals of one consumption circuit, a second pair of spaced contacts adapted for connection to the terminals of the other consumption circuit, and a pair of spaced bridging contact members adapted for connection to the terminals of said supply circuit,

each bridging contact member having two contacts electrically connected together, means for moving said bridging members in unison between a position where one contact of each bridging member engages one of the first named pair of stationary contacts and the opposite contact of each bridging member is spaced from the second named pair of stationary contacts and a position where said opposite contacts of the bridging members engage the second named pair of stationary contacts and the first named pair of stationary contacts are separated from the bridging members, said switching means including mechanism maintaining one contact of each bridging member in engagement with its respective stationary contact until the opposite contact thereof makes contact with its respective stationary contact.

THOMAS J. MUDON. 

